Interview with Daidachi From Spud Shed

After dipping their toes in the comp scene during the 2016 World Championships, The Exiled Keshik and the Asia Pacific branch of the 54th Mechanized Regiment elected to put together a joint team for MRBC.

A good start to Season 8 was hampered somewhat by a loss of focus towards the end of the season, but was still enough to carry the team to 1st place in Division B. Now the team is at the point where to further progress, practice and commitment will be required. The road ahead won't be easy, but it'll be a learning experience.

The above may or may not be a result of the fact we're bored out of our mind with CW, and competitive play - learning and getting better the more we as a group do it, is fun.

Hi, please introduce yourself for those who many not know who you are?

I'm 35, live in Sydney. When I'm not on mechwarrior online I organise beer, cider and spirit deliveries, and argue with truck drivers about how little they're being paid.

As a hint, never try to tell someone you're underpaid two days after you've bought a new boat. You will look like a complete and utter dickhead

What was your first exposure to the competitive gaming scene?

I started off online gaming with WoW, in a progression raiding guild. 6 days/week of raiding for 5 hours a day was enough and I quit - MWO is good in that you can put as much or as little effort as you want into it. The results will show if you practice and learn the theory of the game, but it's not a requirement in order to see what the game has to offer.

Within MWO, I organised a team for Battle For Midway - that went well, and so I signed up a team for the world championships in 2016. We were lucky enough that ISRC were happy to scrimmage us, and I did my research on our opponents, so we performed better than I think some people expected.

Introduce your team briefly?

The Spud Shed is made up of Asia Pacific pilots from the 54th Mechanized Regiment, and the Exiled Keshik.

We both enjoyed the comp experience we gained in the 2016 world championships, but also had pilots who couldn't commit to MRBC or were taking a break from the game - so we joined forces. In S8 we won Div B because we were aggressive. In S9 we were put into Div A, and while we had some great matches, it's been a reality check for some of our pilots as far as what we need to do to progress further (namely practice, practice, practice).

We have pilots from Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, the US, NZ (not Ash), and Australia amongst our ranks. This is the other thing that comp shows - if you think it's a nightmare getting your mates together for a night on the piss, now imagine your mates live in 8 different time zones and are available on different days typically.

Multiply this by 2 teams and you realise why experienced comp teams don't like it when their opponents no show or turn up late without notice. :)

What were your teams goals this season?

I set short, mid and long term goals, and revise them when I feel appropriate lengths of time have passed.

-Short term: Not get 8-0'd in each and every drop. (Success)

-Mid term: Improve on our results the second time we face a team compared to the first time. (partial success)

- Long term: Pull off an upset victory against one of the established teams. (did not succeed - came close, but no cookie)

What has been the most challenging part this season?

There is a very big gap in skill between Div A and Div B. Teams that believe they are good at brawling in lower divisions typically engage in what are realistically strafing runs, where they attempt to use speed to minimise exposure to an enemy while out putting 1-2 alphas before coming around for another pass. Where focus fire is lacking, this is a good tactic - at higher levels of play though, you get torn apart by fighting in this manner.

This is very different to brawling used at higher levels of play, where practices team movement means pilots are continually cycled in and out as damage is meted out.

Adjusting to more use of ranged play has also been something of an ordeal - yes Live, I'm talking to you :)

What about the most rewarding?

As a team captain, the immense satisfaction gained when you out think your opponent.

How do you prepare to win your drops each week?

Start by thinking of what you would do if you were the opposing team. Research their players, do they have particularly good scouts, are their heavies prone to over exposing on trades, what are their favoured mechs and positions on maps. Watch vids if they're available.

After that, think about your own team, what you will do to counter that strategy, bounce ideas off of experienced members of the team and other experienced players (team captains in other regions are useful for this, because you get a different perspective).

Then go through again and think of what the counter to your counter would be, and how do you minimise that risk. Select mechs and pilots, and then distribute the plan to the team - depending on the week and available time, I'll do notes on an excel spreadsheet with a screenshot of a map strat, or if I have a lot of time I'll record a video walk through plus notes.

Preparation and organisation helps a lot, especially when you're still learning the ins and outs of higher level play.

How does your team take a loss, what do you take out of it?

There will always be people who get down and deflated, and others that get angry, that's natural. My job is to help channel that - keep discussions focused and not personal, stick to factual discussions and practical examples of where the tide of a battle changed and how we can do better in the same situation on another attempt.

What strengths do you feel the players bring to team cohesion as a whole? Any particular personality traits or quirks that have caught your eye?

Self awareness, humour, the ability to analyse your own mistakes as well as those of others. A willingness to learn, and being comfortable speaking over VOIP.

Going forward towards future tournaments, and eventually the WC, what plans do you have to help your players continue to grow and remain sharp?

Practice and work on the fundamentals. It works in sports because you can't do the fancy stuff without getting the basics right, and the same is true in MWO.

How is it that you present criticism in a way that is accepted and not seen as inflammatory or offensive?

Avoid emotive turns of phrase - 'i feel like you traded badly at the start of the engagement' is a load of wank, because your feelings mean nothing, and your opinion is subjective.

One of the best pieces of advice I got from Odins Steed after scrimming was to watch videos of matches as a team at the same time. It means that you can pause the match as you focus on individual sections of the engagement, and it avoids as much as possible the tendency of two people watching the same thing at different times to have different recollections of the same event.

Also, I try to wait 24-48 hours after matches to raise concerns with pilots. Most people know when they had an issue, and if you raise it too soon afterwards in detail they can get defensive.

How are you finding the skill tree, has it changed the way you’re playing or the mechs you bring?

I've had one and a half days online since skill tree went live, so I'm still getting used to it.

As a competitive player, what are some changes you would like to see made to competitions to improve competitive play?

I think region lock has been good in a few ways, but been bad in far more. While it's true we're seeing more teams than before signing up for competitions such as MRBC, I don't think that's due to region lock. If a player has the time and energy to commit to another region in addition to their own, I don't see the harm in letting teams have 1-2 pilots on their roster from out of region. I could debate the hows for a long time, but here's not the place.

I'd rather risk losing to good opponents and getting better than consistently win by a huge margin and remain stagnant.

What tips do you have for aspiring competitive players?

Take the time to walk through maps on your own in the testing grounds, or 1v1 with a friend. Learn where the sight lines are on each map, where the best spots for trading are, and where teams who are organised gather for pushes. Time yourself on how long it takes to get to those spots from each of the three spawns for each game mode.

Don't fall into the trap of using the testing grounds to actually practice your gunnery. Shooting stationary targets is lame and teaches you nothing of value - except for how to play at a T5 level.

Finally, do you feel that you and this roster can win MWO WC 17 ?

Nope. I think that there's a skill gap between AP and the other regions, and that only by greater exposure to those other regions is that ever going to be addressed.

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